Auto Industry: Super Bowl Plus for Obama?

CFOworld — With all the positioning from the Republicans in the presidential primaries and caucuses, we haven't heard much about a re-election campaign strategy from the Democrats. Until Super Bowl weekend, that is.

Clint Eastwood Super Bowl Ad: It's Halftime, America

In an unusual Wall Street Journal interview appearing this morning --- can you recall the last time a chief financial officer's chat made Page One? -- General Motors CFO Daniel Ammann becomes the unlikely (and unwitting) spokesman for President Obama by offering bullish prospects for the bailed-out giant: envisioning a 10% profit margin, compared with current margins of about 6%. The target date for GM's earnings report is next Thursday, Feb. 16.

Perhaps resonating even stronger with Democrats: the possibility that adding more U.S. jobs than the 13,000 it tacked on since the 2009 GM bankruptcy reorganization will help move the unemployment rate down further -- after it dropped to 8.3% from 9% just last week.

It was all reminiscent of the pronouncement from Vice President Biden last month, suggesting a possible Democratic re-election slogan: "Osama Bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive." Alive, and then some, it turns out.

But then, during the Super Bowl, there was Clint Eastwood speaking for Chrysler, and referring to the current period as being "halftime in America," as well as in the game itself. "This country can't be knocked out with one punch," the raspy-voiced, Republican-leaning star said from the shadows. "We get right back up again, and when we do the world is going to hear the roar of our engines." (The ad had been taken off the Chrysler site by Monday, although Fox News kept it posted online.)

Earlier this month Chrysler reported a significant 2011 full-year profit, compared with a large prior-year loss. And it also has been aiming to take more job-restoring steps just since 2011 Q3. (So far, CFO Richard Palmer has been a bit less of a spokesman for Chrysler than has Ammann for GM.) Ford Motor has been making even great strides, although it wasn't channeling its profit toward high-priced Super Bowl ads.

Come to think of it, General Electric seemed to be all over the Super Bowl ad scene, too, with comments about its role in helping to add jobs in the U.S. And that doesn't even count the actual interview that the president gave to NBC's Matt Lauer and the assembled Super Bowl audience, arguing for a second term, in part on the basis of jobs created.

Of course, when Eastwood made Chrysler's Super Bowl halftime advertising pronouncement, the (New England) Patriots were ahead. By the end of that second half, the (New York) Giants had overwhelmed the Patriots.

You're welcome to ponder the metaphor. But don't get carried away.